by Jon Davis
BJ said, “Parry can help us figure out what to do. We’ll deal with this before it gets out of control, Angela.”
Angela grabbed him with both hands, pulling him right up to her face. “It’s already out of control, you redheaded beach bum! We are as deep in trouble as we can possibly get!”
For a second, I thought of whistling just to knock her out, but Dana jerked the car to the side, yelling, “Hey!”
The sudden change in the car’s motion was the perfect distraction. Angela let BJ go and curled up into a ball. BJ went back to sitting behind me. Getting control of the car, Dana said, “Enough arguing, both of you! We have major problems! And I am damn well going to get some answers! But fighting about it is not going to make things better! Understood?”
Angela grumbled, “We already told you and Vaughn everything we knew.”
Dana’s voice was cold as she said, “I’m not talking about you Angela.”
BJ had the good sense to stay quiet. None of us said anything more after that, I was just glad that Angela hadn’t teleported out of the car before we got to Dana’s place. Once again, I started thinking about Brand, and what he’d become. Despite the earlier humor, I began to feel depressed. Fortunately, a good distraction came when we finally reached Dana’s home. The distraction being her house. I had something to look at.
Her house was a large ranch style home with a single-car garage attached to the side. At the front of the house, an open porch had a swing on its left side. A picture window was on the right side, and in between them was a white metal door with a screen door in front of it. Behind the swing was another window with the shades pulled down.
Once Dana put the car in park, we got out and quickly rushed toward the dry warmth of the house. On the way inside, Dana said, “Okay, hot showers for everyone. BJ, use the one in the basement, Angela, you use the bathroom up here.”
Pointing to a pair of double doors, she said, “There are some clothes in my bedroom that should fit you.”
Looking at me, she continued, “Vaughn, go strip and get into a robe. You can take a shower after Angela is done.”
Then I asked, “What about you?”
She went to the double doors and opened them inward to her bedroom. She pulled Angela gently in with her, and, as she closed the doors, she said, “I’m throwing on sweats, turning up the heat, and then making everyone hot drinks! Go!”
I blinked and looked at BJ taking off his jacket. He was wearing a t-shirt and black jeans with black leather snow boots. He shrugged and said, “Welcome to my life. Sis is boss, so go do what she said. Don’t worry about dry clothes; I have some that will fit you.”
I looked at his slight frame as he walked off toward an open archway that led to the kitchen beyond. “Your stuff won’t fit me. It’ll be too tight!”
I face heated up as he looked at me with a leer. “Hmm…”
Then he laughed. He said, “Who said it was my stuff? Go, there’s an oversized robe hanging inside the door of my bedroom.”
Left alone for a moment, I tried to understand what was going on. I swear, when I first woke up this morning, my original thought had been just sludging out on the couch and watching the Invader Zim marathon on the Cartoon Network. But no such luck. I pushed it off, thinking about Dana’s house. A distraction, but I needed it, or I’d have to think about my best friend again. Yasmine had taken him, and I hadn’t been there to stop it. But how could I have known? Damn, but she’d gotten to me with that attack, I was thinking in circles.
Waiting for my turn in the shower, I looked around Dana’s house. The living room was a large, square space. One wall was painted a golden yellow, and the other three walls were painted in an eggshell-white to offset the goldenrod color, making it more eye-catching. Accents weren’t my thing, but she did a great job.
There was a long leather couch, also eggshell white, which complemented the dark-stained wood floor. A matching wood coffee table with a glass top stood in front of the couch. In the corner was a lamp, which shone with a soft light, highlighting small pictures framed in an ascending diagonal pattern on the wall next to the couch.
I looked at the pictures. They were pictures of the ocean in various states of the weather—calm, foggy, stormy, and the last one was extreme, with waterspouts splitting the ocean. But the main eye grabber was a large, dark painting of a wooded area with a circle of men and women in a forest in the distance. That portrait sat above a plush brown leather chair. The chair didn’t really fit the room, but it had a worn look to it. It was probably a favorite of hers that had moved from place to place over the years.
In one corner of the living room was a big plasma screen television with side-speakers. There were shelves to each side of that with DVDs. I looked them over. Dana was a fan of old detective movies. The case for the Maltese Falcon was open. Huh, we’d have to hang out sometime. I enjoyed those older movies myself…and I moved past them to check out the rest of the house before I lost myself in what she had for entertainment. I could be such a geek at times, I swear.
In the kitchen was a long white linoleum table in front of a bay window. The far wall was a light blue color, while the rest were the same off-white as the other rooms. Dana definitely enjoyed her accent colors. The stove and refrigerator were burnished chrome with a neat stone arch over the stovetop. The sink and countertops on both sides of the room had a hard dark stone look that went well with the tiled look of the floor.
Beyond the kitchen was BJ’s bedroom. It was a guest bedroom when he wasn’t visiting, though. There was a double bed against the far wall, and I noticed the mismatched dressers, as I got undressed. After I was sure Dana and Angela had finished their showers, I went into the bathroom. Before I took a shower, though, I had to relieve myself. While I did, I heard the door open behind me. Then, a few seconds later I heard a heartbeat speed up and a slight intake of breath. I rolled my eyes.
“BJ, stop looking at my butt.”
“But it’s so cute!”
“BJ!”
“Meep! Some clothes are on the bed for you whenever you’re done.” Chuckling, he closed the door behind him.
I sighed. Weird boy. I had a feeling I’d say that a lot about him.
Dana had a great walk-in shower, but otherwise the bathroom was too pretty for my tastes with its floral tile. Far too feminine. After washing quickly, I got out, dried off, and found BJ’s promised pile of clothes waiting for me on the bed. There was even a worn but clean jean jacket that was my size too. Except for that, I threw on the pants and a heavy weave type gym sweater. Once I slipped into a pair of socks and shoes, I went back out to the kitchen. Four large mugs of hot chocolate were sitting on the table. I chuckled when I noticed that the mugs were from Vaughners.
Taking a drink, I walked to the other doorway just past the kitchen. It wasn’t too surprising to find a library in her house, given her job. Dana’s place was big for someone who lived alone, but I guessed that she had use for every room. I saw that the windows were looking out into the darkness. Of course it was night, I saw that when we got out of the hospital. Man, my brain was still dealing with whatever Yasmine had zapped me with. I was just running through the motions, so to speak, of dealing with what had happened at the hospital. No, I couldn't deal with that right now, but I did have to deal with life, and that included the parents.
Using Dana’s phone in the kitchen, I made a quick call to my parents. They asked if I’d heard about the odd explosion at the hospital, and I said no. I wasn’t thinking about much beyond the hot chocolate that was slowly warming up my insides. They hoped I was having a good time with Dana and BJ. Oh yeah, I was having such a fantastic time. I chuckled ruefully as I hung up.
The other three came into the kitchen and sat down as I talked on the phone. BJ was the last to join us, and I noticed that he had brought a phad with him. Sitting at the table, I looked at the oval shaped thing. I really wasn’t sure I’d ever want one now, thanks to Paradoxis. Still, I reached out and touched it.
Nothing hit me. Nothing happened. Just a piece of burnished black plastic.
I glanced up at BJ, and he shrugged. “Forget it. I haven’t been able to get a hold of her. Something’s wrong. I’m hoping she’s just been busy with mundane life stuff.”
That brought up another point. “So, the birthday present?”
BJ grinned. “What? Parry was curious about you and Brand. Funny though, she said you seemed normal clear up until your birthday. Then something flared in her senses.”
I said, “She kept Yasmine from reading me, I take it? I felt something while Kular was checking me out in the ambulance, but I barely remembered it until today, thanks to that attack.”
BJ looked troubled, but nodded. “She can ride people—Yasmine, that is. She’s able to bounce off her followers like a cell phone signal does with a repeater tower. Think of it as telepathic call roaming. She did that to a number of the conclave before we caught on.”
Angela’s eyes narrowed. “Then who can we trust in the conclave? She talked to everyone! Who knows how many she physically visited?”
I looked at them. Even now, it seemed as if they were being all mysterious. I hadn’t heard any names of people who were in the conclave. Hell, for all I knew, it was just the three of them—Angela, Alan, and now BJ. And maybe the conclave, along with Paradoxis, was a cover of some sort. Ugh, now I was being paranoid. Looking over at Dana, I realized that there had to be someone I could trust. She’d be it.
And, speaking of trust issues, I asked, “Can we free Brand?”
BJ looked at me and took a deep breath. “I haven’t got a clue. Maybe, but it depends on how far she went in programming him. Can you handle that? I mean, it may come down to—”
I held up a hand. “We’ll worry about that when the time comes. Not right now. Got it?”
Taking my words in stride, he nodded and then sat kitty-corner across from me as Dana brought more steaming hot chocolate to the table. BJ looked troubled and glanced at her with a slightly scrunched face. Dana sighed and went to a small cupboard next to the refrigerator and grabbed a bag of marshmallows. Tossing him the bag, she muttered, “Brat…”
He smiled. “Always!” Then he ripped into the bag, pouring nearly half of the contents into the mug.
Across from me, Angela sighed. “This is the co-leader of the conclave of the Empowered? God help us all…”
Dana blinked and looked at Angela, then met my eyes with a look of disbelief. Then she looked at BJ, who was pointedly looking at the tabletop while drinking from his mug.
She grunted and said, “Uh huh. The conclave of the…Empowered?”
“Um, the name just kinda came up,” he said after a moment.
Dana sighed. “Well, at least now I know how this conclave knows about my coven.”
She glanced at Angela. “We don’t use the Internet. We talk directly to each other, and none of us keeps our information on computers. They’re too easily hacked by people we would prefer not to know about us. So when you said you knew about my circle, I had my suspicions.”
BJ looked at his mug. It was obvious to me that he didn’t want to be yelled at by Dana. And right now, I really didn’t want to see any arguing. Frankly, I ached too much to deal with family squabbles.
So I said, “So, in a few months’ time we went from perfectly normal to perfectly not normal; at least, by the current standards of civilization.”
BJ snorted and said, “If you can call civilization ‘normal’…I guess…”
Dana said, “To a point, it is.”
“Not quite, I still haven’t had the question answered about how psi-powers work in the first place. But the neural physics behind them aren’t relevant right now. They exist, so what’s done, is done. I’ll ask the ‘how’ questions later,” I said to her.
Dana looked away, as did BJ. Yeah, they knew how things worked.
Angela glanced at the two and then at me. “Vaughn, where is this going?”
“Um, I’m not sure. I mean, obviously I’m not a big fan of physics, but Alex didn’t just pop out of thin air. Nobody just pops up with superhuman abilities, Angela. It’s been bugging me as much as my having these powers have.” I answered.
I noticed BJ looking at his mug and putting in even more marshmallows. He glanced at me and then looked away. I just looked at him. Dana noticed his reaction and her eyes narrowed.
She said, “BJ, I know that attitude. What are you hiding?” BJ was very focused with drinking his hot chocolate. Dana looked at him pointedly. “BJ? Did you know what Alex could do?”
BJ looked away from the two of us for a moment longer before he sighed and gave a nod. “He’s…he was a catalytic telekinetic. He powered me up while we were still with each other.”
Dana stared at him. She said, “What? And how is that possible?”
BJ shrugged and answered, “He said it was an accident. Something happened when we had sex and my normal shields ramped up.”
Looking at me, he said, “I think it was a part of his normal power set. He showed me his telekinesis, and he told me that Dana was helping him. But honestly, Vaughn, if he did empower you and Brand, then I think it was an accident. He really did seem shocked by what happened.”
Dana shook her head, anger showing in her eyes once more. “Damn you, BJ! I was his trainer! Did you even consider telling me this? It might have made…”
Dana choked, unable to finish. She was still dealing the loss of Alex. And now, to add to it, she had to wonder if BJ might have contributed to this mess. I think he had, but not in hiding the bit about Alex’s catalyst talent. No, BJ had done something even more idiotic. But that was something we would deal with later.
Looking at her, I said, “Dana, Alex didn’t die from trying to wake potential psi-gifts in people. He went full power and stopped a massive, world-destroying asteroid. I’m no scientist; I don’t know jack about how psychic energy works, but I do know that if you push yourself to the max for too long physically, you’re going to collapse. Alex went all the way with a power he barely understood. It killed him. He stopped Yama, but it took everything he had.”
Dana sighed. “I just wish I had known about the other thing. To have the ability to activate psi-talents in humans—”
Angela said, “Not to interject, but whatever else he did, Alex Shaw saved the world. I hope no one is going to forget that point.”
We sat there for a bit, drinking the hot chocolate. Then I set mine on the table, unfinished. I had had enough. I needed something with meat on it. Hours had passed. All the time I’d spent at Ryan Tech, the time in San Francisco, and the time at the hospital had all combined to eat up the entire day. Now, even when so much was going on, here I was, unable to think about much beyond the fact that my stomach was rumbling.
The doorbell rang, and Dana got up. She said, “There’s the pizza. We need food.”
I guess she really was psychic, after all. She went to pay for it. Before long, we were munching on pizza and letting things ride. I wasn’t going to argue. It gave us a chance to be normal. Whatever was going on outside the house, whoever was out there preparing to attack Riverlite, it could wait. I hoped so, anyway. So we gabbed about gossip, music, and movie stars, and, to my amusement, BJ’s absolute horror about the television show Glee.
But I wasn’t completely distracted from what was going on outside. I listened halfway while my mind started running over the attacks. I realized that my brain was attempting to find a chink in Yasmine’s armor so I could get an advantage. Actually, something specific kept coming up, something Yasmine had said. Then it clicked.
Swallowing a bite of the pizza, I said, “New Men.”
Dana looked up at me. “I’m sorry? Is that another name for the Empowered?”
Angela finished eating a breadstick and said, “No, it’s copyrighted by a comic company. All the cool names are. BJ coined the one we used—well, actually he grabbed it.”
BJ raised his hands, gesturing with a hand that had a slice of pizza in
it, cheese hanging down. “Hey, it was either that or…yeah, I had nothing. But the word ‘Empowered’ pretty well fit with what was going on.”
I said, “Okay. But did you ever hear Yasmine complain about a group of people calling themselves the ‘New Men?’”
BJ glanced at Angela. They shook their heads, giving me confused looks. Dana said, “Where is this going, Vaughn?”
I held up a hand to stop her for a second. “BJ? Did another group ever appear that might have used the name?” Then I gave him a wry look and said, “After all, not everyone knows everything that’s copyrighted by comic book publishers.”
BJ ignored my comment, and he and Angela looked at each other. Then BJ looked back at me and said, “No. Paradoxis did a worldwide reading of the Empowered. She has the info on everyone. If these New Men ever showed up, she never told us about it. And I think she would’ve told me, at least.”
I nodded and said, “I figured that. I just wanted to make certain.”
Dana looked annoyed, not with me, but with the term ‘New Men.’ I saw her mouth the words silently. Then she looked at me and asked, “Vaughn, what are you thinking?”
I said, “I’m not sure. But once I brought up the training of other psi-talents a possibility kept coming to mind. What if it isn’t other Empowered we’re talking about?”
BJ looked skeptical. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Vaughn. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
I said, “I think there’s a third group. Think about it. Kular and Yasmine can’t get information from Ryan Technologies. Why might that be?”
I looked at Dana. “You told me that you trained people with controllable psi-gifts. What happened to those people over the years?”
Dana’s eyes widened in shock and then narrowed with suspicion. And, oddly enough, anger. She covered it up by taking a moment to take plates from the table. She didn’t say anything as she rinsed them off. Angela looked even more confused.
BJ was startled. He stared at me and said, “Dude, no, let it go, man. It has to be something else. It can’t be…”
